90% of injuries to children can be avoided, conference is told

Half the children under 15 who die each year from injuries, die on the State's roads, a conference on child safety was told yesterday.

The conference, organised by the Road Safety Authority, also heard recommendations that parents should not allow children to play on trampolines without supervision and safety aids.

The authority's chief executive Noel Brett said roughly half of the 75 children who died each year from injuries, received those injuries in road traffic collisions.

He was supported by Martin Heffernan, chairman of the National Injury Prevention Committee, who concluded that as much as 90 per cent of the annual toll of 150,000 childhood injuries - including fatal ones - could be avoided with the aid of a safety regime.

Dr Alf Nicholson, consultant paediatrician and chairman of the European Child Safety Alliance said: "In Europe, more children die of injuries than all other diseases combined."

Roger Sweeney of the Irish Water Safety organisation said 56 children drowned in Ireland between 1994 and 2004.

"Teaching water safety along with the development of safety awareness and skills are fundamental elements in the education of children," he said.

Dr Cian McDermott of St James's Hospital, Dublin, presented the results of research on the causes of injuries to children using trampolines, which he carried out with his colleagues John Quinlan and Ian Kelly.

When examining the circumstances of the trampoline injuries, Dr McDermott found that in more than half of the cases, the children had no adult supervision at the time of injury.

There were no protective barriers in more than 60 per cent of cases and 84 per cent of children reported that there were other children on the trampoline at the time of injury.

"These results strongly suggest that there is a clear need for guidelines in Ireland and we recommend that this country adopts the guidelines established by the American Academy of Paediatrics," he said.